JFK's death overshadowed Ohio nursing home fire

By JOHN SEEWER Associated Press

7:17 AM, Nov 23, 2013

File photo

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TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- A nursing home fire that killed 63 people in Ohio 50 years ago is largely forgotten -- and went barely noticed at the time -- because it came just hours after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Many of those who died at the Golden Age Nursing Home outside the northern Ohio village of Fitchville were restrained to their beds or trapped behind wheelchairs too wide for the exits.

It remains one of the worst nursing home fires in U.S. history. Investigators blamed faulty wiring and found that the nursing home didn't have an evacuation plan.

The fire and a string of other nursing home fires in the 1960s brought about better federal and state oversight and safety regulations for nursing homes.

Copyright 2013 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.